Summergrass: Play one, play all

Bluegrass festival features music onstage and in its campgrounds

Glen Bailey (clockwise from upper right), Virgil Iler, Eric Gripp, Frank Sloat and Jeff Johanning played together after gathering early for the Summergrass bluegrass festival. The festival, in its seventh year, started yesterday and continues today and tomorrow. (John Gastaldo / Union-Tribune)

Glen Bailey (clockwise from upper right), Virgil Iler, Eric Gripp, Frank Sloat and Jeff Johanning played together after gathering early for the Summergrass bluegrass festival. The festival, in its seventh year, started yesterday and continues today and tomorrow. (John Gastaldo / Union-Tribune)

VISTA 
Many of the bluegrass musicians featured at Summergrass in Vista today and tomorrow are based in the Appalachia region, where the sound originated in the early 1900s. But they aren't the only ones traveling to perform the string-driven story songs that often personify American rural life.

Summergrass, now in its seventh year, features as much music onstage as it does in its campgrounds.

The rigs started rolling into the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum Thursday, where they parked in assigned spaces on a wide dirt plot surrounded by cypress and palm trees. A white canopy sandwiched between luxury motor homes shaded a circle of folding chairs and an array of string instruments in music stands. A jam session had already started.

Glen Bailey arrived from Escondido in a truck toting a 1949 Canned Ham silver trailer, packed with a dozen instruments he intended to share.

“We plan on playing all weekend long,” said Bailey, who learned to play banjo and mandolin as a child.

“The wonderful thing about bluegrass music is, once the musicians get offstage, they'll be down here playing with us.”

Yvonne Tatar, a stand-up bass player and the event's publicity chairwoman, said Summergrass attendance has nearly doubled, from attracting 2,800 guests in its first year to crowds nearing 5,000 in 2008. Part of the event's appeal is that it taps into the cultural tourism trend, or the desire to visit a place that represents a different way of life, she said.

“Our festival lets people step back in time,” said Tatar, who performs with her husband, Mike, in the bluegrass band Virtual Strangers.

“This is still a working farm; there are working tractors and a big garden in the back. You can buy pies and cobbler at a farmhouse with an old-time kitchen, and sometimes they crank up the old ice-cream freezers.”

Another attraction is the Kids Camp, where youngsters from 6 to 16 learn to play traditional bluegrass instruments, such as banjo and fiddle, from members of Burnett Family Bluegrass, a band that also performs at the festival.

More than 10 bluegrass bands will perform at the event, including recording artists NewFound Road at 8 tonight, and the Kenny and Amanda Smith Band tonight and tomorrow. Local bluegrass bands include Shirthouse Band and Gone Tomorrow.

“It's the fellowship, that's the key here,” said Rancho Peñasquitos resident Virgil Iler, who strapped on a Santa Cruz guitar before joining the jam session in the campgrounds.

“These folks have been playing for a long time; they are seasoned musicians. One of the things about bluegrass shows is the people it attracts. A lot of them are patriotic, a lot of retired military, hardworking people. We are a big family.”